During the State of the Union speech, President Obama said it’s time to do away with policies that “belong in a ‘Mad Men’ episode”:

Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. This year, let’s all come together – Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street – to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds.

According to McClatchy, using the methodology the White House applies to everybody else, the Obama administration pays women almost ten percent less than men (h/t Ed Morrissey):

But a McClatchy review of White House salaries shows that when the same calculations that produced the 77 cents is applied to the White House, the average female pay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is less than the average male pay. When counted the same way that produced the 77-cent figure, the analysis found, women overall at the White House make 91 cents for every dollar men make. That’s an average salary of $84,082 for men and $76,516 for women.

But, get this: The White House countered by arguing that measuring their male/female pay disparity with the same yardstick they use for the rest of the country isn’t fair to them:

Asked about its own payroll, the White House said Wednesday that it should be measured by how it pays men and women in the same jobs, but not the kind of broad brush that compares overall male and female pay.

Only the White House is allowed to use that particular “broad brush”!

Seriously though, does criticism about “Mad Med” era behavior seem a bit odd coming from people who have lionized Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy?